


Neil Is A Dumbass™️

by HonoraryFox



Series: TFC Mini fics [3]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andrew to the rescue, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Neil gets sick, Neil gets sick and he ignores it bc of course, Panic Attack, ish, or as fluffy as the boys get, tw: panic attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23823415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HonoraryFox/pseuds/HonoraryFox
Summary: Neil wakes up early one day and ignores the fact he feels only slightly better than death. He ends up calling Andrew to come and pick him up.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Series: TFC Mini fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1118817
Comments: 9
Kudos: 196





	Neil Is A Dumbass™️

**Author's Note:**

> So I am about 99% certain this is the word doc of a Tumblr post I made but I've been going through my files during lockdown after getting over the initial period of 'oh shit I'm stuck in my house and I cannot get along with my entire family for extended periods of time this is not going to go well', but it's buried so deep in my Tumblr that I dont know where it is and I have a shocking tagging system. SO. I'm posting it here so I a) don't lose track of it. again. I literally called this file 'TFC fic' and have so many how and why did I think that was a good idea and b) to give some entertainment to people also in lockdown.

Neil was stumbling over his feet. He’d gone alone to an early practice, just running drills on the court. he thought that was what his aching muscles were crying out for, to be used again since he’d been benched for an ankle injury last week. He was so focussed on getting back onto the court he pushed the thoughts of ‘my head really doesn’t feel good’ and ‘I shouldn’t be this warm’ to the back of his mind.

He ran through drills for an hour, thought he should stop, but then ran though another hour of drills before his legs gave out on him and he knew he needed to leave. But it was still 6am as he stumbled through to the locker room and he wasn’t getting back to sleep again after the nightmare that had woken him up so instead he showered but the water burned him so he knocked the temperature down as low as it would go. He was still too warm.

As he dressed he grabbed his coat to shrug it on but the heat was suffocating so he shoved it into his locker and walked out into the late December morning in nothing but a t-shirt. The cold air soothed his boiling skin as he spent an hour walking around before he walked to a coffee shop close to campus. He got a strange look from the early morning barista when he ordered and iced drink to go with his coat-less attire.

Neil tucked himself into a corner of the shop and started sipping his drink. He didn’t realise that he had fallen asleep until buzzing in his pocket woke him seven hours later. The same barista still lingered at the counter and seemed to be studiously ignoring Neil. Neil vaguely recalled someone trying to wake him earlier and wondered what had happened after that. He decided that he didn’t want to know but left $40 on the counter on his way out just in case it was something bad.

He answered the call when he’d let the door close behind him. Andrew didn’t say anything at first and just waited patiently for an explanation from Neil as to where the hell he had been since before Andrew woke up.

“I’m at the coffee shop. Can you come get me? And… and bring me some long sleeved shirts too.” Andrew wasn't sure what to say to that, the coffee shop was a ten minute walk away but he went and picked up some shirts for Neil and a hoodie of his own and headed to his car.

He pursed his lips when he pulled up at the curb to see Neil in a short sleeved shirt and no coat. Neil didn’t seem to register that Andrew had pulled up so Andrew leaned over and opened passenger door in front of Neil. When Neil still didn’t react he threw the clothes at him. Neil tugged on the shirts and then the hoodie and climbed into the car. He didn’t say a word in explanation to Andrew but his mouth felt like sandpaper and he was just so tired and he thought that if he opened his mouth he wouldn’t be able to keep down whatever merge contents might be in his stomach.

Andrew parked the car and waited. For Neil to say something, or for Neil to move, and Neil wasn’t sure which it was, but he wasn’t really up to either. he could feel Andrew’s probing gaze on him and decided that moving was to best option, and going to the library would be a good idea. he was getting behind on some classes and now he had a warm jacket he could walk there.

“Thanks.” Neil muttered as he hopped out of the car. He was off before Andrew had time to follow and got lost in a crowd of students so Andrew couldn’t follow him.

The hours in the library had Neil turning off his phone to stop Andrew calling him. Eventually he conceded that he had to go back. His stomach was alternating from about to throw up to completely starving and he couldn’t sleep in the library. Or practice. And he really needed to go to practice. Plus, having sat down for so long he felt a lot better than he had been earlier. In fact, he was fine. And that is exactly what he felt when he walked through the door.

He’d turned his phone back on while he was on the way home. He had more missed calls than he liked to think about, and several angry texts. Not that they really looked angry, but Neil knew that they were. He was determined to be fine and so he was.

”I'm fine." Neil announced as he rubbed at a pain in his forehead.

Andrew bristled at the answer to his unasked question when Neil walked into the room. He thought they'd got over this bullshit kind of answer but apparently not. He slowly and purposefully closed the book he had been not really been reading and put it on the floor. He did nothing else as he watched Neil pad around the kitchen and half pull food from the cup cupboards before putting it straight back again. After ten minutes of watching this Andrew gave up and poured Neil a bowl of cereal himself and placed it on the counter. Neil had just stopped. He didn't seem to be moving or breathing.

Neil moved to the counter sluggishly when his brain caught up with what Andrew had done. He sat in front of the bowl with his elbows on the counter and let a spoon hang from his fingers. His eyes were glazed over and unfocused. Andrew cocked his head to the side a little. It wasn’t concern. It was curiosity.

Neil’s dark hoodie hung loosely from his body and, despite multiple long sleeved layers beneath, he was shivering. Andrew noticed, because when would Andrew not notice, and immediately went to boil some water. Coffee probably wouldn’t help Neil, so he opted for making hot honey and lemon. Since the stubborn git wasn’t going to tell him that what was actually wrong with him any time soon, Andrew settled with doing little things, for now, until he could get Neil to talk, which would be at practice in a few hours.

It took Neil a painful half hour to eat the bowl of cereal in front of him. Each mouthful made his stomach turn and bile rise to burn the back of his throat. But he was fine and he had to be fine because if he wasn’t then he was sick and if he was sick he couldn’t protect himself and if he couldn’t protect himself…

Neil’s breath started coming in short, sharp gasps as the panic started to set in and he sank off the stool. His brain ran at a hundred miles an hour as the self deprecating thoughts filtered into his mind. Not good enough. Useless. Going to get them killed. Get in the fucking drivers seat, Neil, and drive- Oh you idiot, you’re going to kill us! His mother’s voice screamed at him over and over.

Andrew could see Neil’s panic beginning. Breathless mutterings of ‘I’m fine’ over and over again. It was only after shouting at the idiot to shut up three times that Andrew realised that Neil wasn’t talking to him, that Neil wasn’t just panicking, he was having some sort of flash back.

Andrew ran a hand through his hair, muttering ‘fuck’ repeatedly under his breath as he tried to figure out what to do for the best. Touching Neil to bring him out of his panic wouldn’t end well for either of them so he had to settle for kneeling in front of Neil and talking to him until he could hear.

Andrew’s voice filtered into Neil’s hearing slowly. To begin with, he couldn’t discern it from all the other voices in his head to begin with, but it was the only one calling him Neil and not one of the many other names he had gone through in his life.

“A-Andrew?” He stuttered out through his panicked gasps.

“Yeah, junkie, you’re ok.”

“I’m- I’m,” Neil stammered through his gasps. “And- Andre-”

“Shh, you’re safe, you’re ok, but I need you to listen to me, alright?” At Neil’s feeble nod Andrew continued. “Ok, I’m going to put your head on my chest, is that ok?” Neil nodded again, still gasping in his panic. His vision was fading at the edges, he wasn’t getting enough oxygen. “Ok. I need you to breathe with me. Just follow the rhythm of my chest. Wherever you think you are, you’re not. We’re at Fox tower. You’re name is Neil Josten, you’re a striker and a junkie with a big mouth and you are safe. You are allowed to be sick. But damn, you’re a dumbass.”

“H-hey!”

“You should have said something, now you’ve gone and made it worse, idiot.”

“So-sorry.”

“It’s ok, just keep breathing with me.”

When Neil had calmed down enough to breathe on his own Andrew led him to the bathroom and turned on the shower.

“Get warm, junkie.” Neil looked as if he was about to reply but instead just nodded his head and moved under the steady stream of hot water. Andrew sat himself in the bedroom and waited.

When Neil walked in he was dressed in loose fitting pyjama pants and a sweatshirt that looked several sizes too big for him. Andrew just pointed at Neil’s bed in a silent command for him to get the fuck into it and stay there.

“I’m fi-”

“Shut up. Get into bed.” Andrew stalked off to the kitchen and brought a glass of water and some pain killers back with him. He’d seen the way Neil was rubbing his head earlier.

Neil took the tablets and water silently but didn’t take them. It was a show of how ‘fine’ he was. Andrew just glared at him until he gave in.

“Go to sleep. And I swear to god if I see you at practice tomorrow I will gut you.”

“Andrew, I’m-”

“No. No you are not ‘fine’ and if you say you are fucking fine again I will be gutting you sooner than I thought. You are sick. You need to rest. Get that through that thick, junkie skull of yours and go to sleep. No one needs saving, the only person that needs saving right now is you from yourself and that’s my job so lay the fuck down and listen to me, dammit.” Neil just raised an eyebrow. Andrew sounded bored but when Neil didn’t listen and lay down there was a rather forceful shove to his chest that made him.

“Sleep.” Andrew glared.

“I- fine.”

Andrew left the room muttering something about ‘fucking exy junkies’ and their ‘fucking lack of self preservation’ and ‘why the fuck do I put up with this’ as Neil drifted off to sleep.


End file.
